The Dream of Mademoiselle as Jezebel

Mary,

Between the Bible and Racine, these two combined into a bedtime horror story for two little boys, both with highly imaginative minds. Mademoiselle is a very interesting character and there still are other dimensions left to explore. 

If nothing else is learned, it is that one needs to be fully aware of the constant possiblities throughout Nabokov with the interconnections in his writing. The fear Mlle has of Lensky trampling her lifeless body is not a random sentence. This is why VN's work is a semi-autobiography, due to its many fictional elements. The real questions are, more likely never to be truly known: 

1) How much is true?

2) How much is embellished? and

3) How much is more a "story" than anything else?

Best,

Jim

Alain,

First, show one the common courtesy of addressing someone directly, rather than using the 3rd person address as if someone is not present.

As to Translations and the French of Racine’s Athalie, in particular:

Never did I say I was proficient in French. I only maintained that what I found quickly on the Internet did not satisfy my purposes (perhaps these words are better than the one I used: atrocious). Rather than rely on someone else’s translation, I spent a great deal of time in doing the translation myself. One cannot appreciate another’s words when those words go through someone else first.

Of the two translations I looked at, one translation was way off. I didn’t even retain a copy of it. The other version I found was a translation in rhyming verse to match Racine’s rhyming verse. While this is a valid effort for translating, I wanted the actual words that Racine used. Translation is its own tempest in a teapot from those who adhere strictly to the words (Literalists) to those who freely amend the original (Interpretists, Free Translation). Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Nabokov himself covered both extremes with his more literal translation of Eugene Onegin to his quite free Russified translation of Alice in Wonderland. While approaches and likes may vary as to translation types (and sometimes the best approach is a balance between the two extremes), what matters most is content.

What I find noteworthy is that you focused on the one most problematic line, Line 503, I encountered from Racine’s text. In short, your approach was to critique the weakest point (which after more research, I have since corrected). Then you go on to extrapolate your criticism into the hyperbolic sarcasm of “as if for years she [Jezebel] kept chasing that first high.” Where is this coming from? Constructive criticism? Hardly. More like unwarranted pettiness. Why such vitriol?

 You offer a more valid, in your mind, translation available on the Internet, being J. Donskerley’s dated 1873 translation as a better model than the one I wrote. So I looked into your example. Posted, as an attachment, is a line-by-line breakdown of the verse in question [Racine’s Athalie Translation Comparisons]. While again, I have never put forth my translation as the only one of any validity, in comparison it does stand up to the other two examples, which both tend to be more interpretive.

Yet then you claim that my Endnote, explaining my reason in the first place for doing a French to English translation, “is almost lifted straight from the Lectures on Literature.” Be specific. You are accusing me of plagiarism? This from one (being me) who does his own translations in order to learn the original words himself? One who spends hours doing so is hardly one who lifts texts from someone else. You are accusing me of plagiarism? That is both an insult and an unfounded accusation. And you go further with me having “a desire to emulate a favourite [British, not American spelling] author.” Who? Racine? Nabokov? Where the hell does this come from? I am my own person and to my own writing am true.

Where is/should be the bigger focus here, Alain? On some 10 pages of posted content regarding the connections found in the Bible, Racine and Nabokov’s original Russian text on the scene portraying Mademoiselle as Jezebel, you focus on one translated French to English line specifically, which automatically expands to a critique on the entire French translation and ignores in toto all the points put across in the paper itself.

One does not need praise for their posts, but the expectation is for a dialogue, not a diatribe. If errors or disagreements are to be put forth, then do so in context or with some subtlety. This type of rude attack and accusation does nothing but generate a toxic atmosphere. Others have wondered why there are so few posts on this site. Perhaps a look in the mirror and on the page will quickly tell why this is so, Alain. Why would anyone wish to post on this site, when they see others quickly dismissed in a very sharp and un-collegial fashion?

Alain, where is your criticism of my Russian to English translations of Drugie berega? What do you have for a comparison? NOTHING! There are none – at least none that I am aware of or have been told exists. In short, I am ADDING to the Discussion, the Conversation here. What are you adding? You add a NEGATIVE, a SUBTRACTION. It seems your aim is simply to silence others and then complain when no one dares to venture forth and break said silence anymore.

I have been restrained in the past, but will no more.

You owe me, and this website, an apology. Period.

Regards from a non-emulator,

Jim Buckingham

Alain,

French lessons received and appreciated. 

Regards,

Jim, who is no longer des-figured 

Alain,

Mais je n'ai plus trouvé qu'un horrible mélange

Now no longer anything but one horrible mix

D'os et de chair meurtris, et traînés dans la fange,

Of bones and bruised flesh, dragged through the mud,

Des lambeaux pleins de sang, et des membres affreux            505

Shreds full of blood and some rubbish limbs

Que des chiens dévorants se disputaient entre eux.

That devouring dogs were fighting over among themselves.

This is far better. Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Jim